This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
FEATURE DAVID ALTMEJD
facing page: The Settler (detail), 2005, mixed media, DAVID ALTMEJD LIKES TO CALL HIMSELF A SCULPTOR, but when it comes
142 x 335 x 229 cm. to this London-based, Canadian-born artist, the common-sense idea of
this page, top: Untitled, 2005, plaster, resin, paint, synthetic hair, sculpture is stretched to breaking point. Not just stretched, but warped,
jewellery, 23 x 25 x 20 cm. twisted, fractured and refracted, unravelled, kaleidoscoped, extended,
this page, below, from left: Loup-garou 2, 2000, mixed media, condensed, exploded. Altmejd’s densely worked assemblages, which
244 x 183 x 213; Loup-garou 1, 1999, mixed media, 214 x 198 x 244.
Photo: Richard-Max Tremblay draw on primal and mythological symbolism as much as they do on the
cool of minimalism, on the shock of the abject as much as the cloying,
refined delicacies of kitsch, probe the fault line of how we understand
and describe objects; the point where the prosaic and the recognisable
fuse and recombine to open on the sudden materialisation of the
imaginary. Sculpture, for Altmejd, is the energy of transformation. And
he’ll be bringing that charge to Venice, where he is representing his
country in this year’s Biennale.
Altmejd’s mesmerising, albeit sometimes disturbing, objects
are about alternates, opposites, polarities. There are dismembered
heads and limbs, often those of a werewolf, a recurring myth-figure in
Altmejd’s visual universe. The werewolf is the idea of transformation
made flesh: from human to animal and back again, according to the
phase of the moon. But in Altmejd’s universe-in-flux, nothing retains
its identity for long – his werewolf heads find themselves adorned
with jewels, or are already host to a growth of crystals, or have their
desiccated corpses decorated with gold chains and cheap jewellery.
One form of fascination – the macabre vision of the seemingly dead
werewolf – is melded with another – the glitter and sparkle of precious
metals and precious stones.
seven.linnine.lin ARTREVIEW
p076-082 David Altmejd AR Jun07.79 79 10/5/07 00:17:49
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132 Page 133 Page 134 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 138 Page 139 Page 140 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145 Page 146 Page 147 Page 148 Page 149 Page 150 Page 151 Page 152 Page 153 Page 154 Page 155 Page 156 Page 157 Page 158 Page 159 Page 160 Page 161 Page 162 Page 163 Page 164 Page 165 Page 166 Page 167 Page 168 Page 169 Page 170